Happy Birthdays

We celebrated Austin's and Rebecca's birthdays yesterday with Rebecca's family.  Rebecca went to a lot of work on the decorations and cupcakes.

I made the cake from the recipe she requested. It didn't look quite as good as Martha Stewart's picture but that's probably because I didn't use 6 cups of frosting like her recipe called for.  Everyone said it was delicious but just as a warning to anyone tempted to try the frosting recipe, you have to stir it constantly over low heat for about 30 minutes and then put it in the refrigerator for 2 hours, stirring it every 15 minutes or so.  (I don't think Rebecca knew what she was getting me into when she requested this recipe!)

The party went well.  Rebecca's family was very nice and came early to help with some large projects we had in the yard.  Then we had a very nice dinner of Parmesan chicken and wild rice (by Rebecca), cheesy broccoli and onions as well as Lion House rolls (from Gram and Aunt Stephanie and Aunt Rosanne), and a variety of fresh fruit (from Julie).

After dinner, we opened presents.  Rebecca and I have been working for the past few months (in the few free minutes here and there) on Austin's gift; a toy box.  Rebecca cut out the letters on the scroll saw she got for Christmas.  I think she did a great job.

We had him open our present first because we knew he would be getting plenty of things to put right into it.  Rebecca's family gave him a lot of nice clothes and books and toys as well as some money to put in his savings account.  They were all very generous.

Rebecca got some books as well, but hers were a little longer.  She also got a ladder and an organizer for the garage. I haven't actually given her my gift yet, because it is new rose bushes for the front yard and the nursery won't start carrying them for another week or so.

The most entertaining part of the evening was giving Austin his very first cupcake. Here's the video and some pictures of the aftermath.

Easter and Other Random Stuff

Austin loves to play with his dad by trying to roll over him. This seems to be one of his favorite games:

We decided to name our parrot Moglie after the boy from The Jungle Book. He is warming up to us. He recently discovered the joys that come from rolling a ball across the floor and chasing it so it can be rolled again (something that both Austin and Zipper also seem to really enjoy):

Our ward had an Easter Picnic Saturday. We had some fun making some daisy cupcakes for the event using lemon cake and raspberry frosting.

 
After eating and having a spiritual thought, there was an Easter egg "hunt." I would call it more of a harvest...There weren't many places to hide eggs in the park, so most the eggs were set out in the open on the grass. We thought Austin might be interested in crawling after an egg, but when we set him on the grass near some, he just laid there without moving. He was a little more interested when we handed one of the eggs to him, which he was happy to examine and stick in his mouth.

Austin got a fluffy blue bunny from his great-grandparents and aunts for Easter:

We also ended up giving my brother Ben some late birthday gifts on Sunday. This was my favorite:

This gift takes a little explanation:

This is actually my first laptop I bought while attending BYU, sometime in 2002. It was a used refurbished deal, which is all I could afford at the time. It lasted me fairly well for several years, but I got a new laptop a year or so before graduating. I got my new computer just in time; my old laptop seemingly conked out right after transferring my files to my new one. I planned to recycle the old one, but it disappeared from where I left it in our front room one day (not the first time that scenario played out for my belongings in that apartment). I never found it before moving out of the apartment. A couple years later, my brother Allan moved into the same ward I had been in when my old computer disappeared. Allan's roommate Brandon ended up with the laptop after my old apartment had been completely cleaned out well for the first time in years. After some major finagling, he got it to turn on and found pictures of me. So, he showed the computer to Allan, and Allan gave it back to me. It still turns on if you go through an interesting process of steps, including turning the computer on and off a couple times...

Before leaving on his mission, my brother Ben kept saying he would get Allan's laptop when he got back. We don't know where he got that idea from. However, Ben will want a laptop, especially when he goes back to school at BYU, so I kept my old laptop safe, and then proudly presented it to him for his birthday. It certainly made for a good laugh.